Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 1).djvu/21

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

OTHING is more typical of a civilization than its roads. The traveler enters the city of Nazareth on a Roman road which has been used, perhaps, since the Christian era dawned. Every line is typical of Rome; every block of stone speaks of Roman power and Roman will. And ancient roads come down from the Roman standard in a descending scale even as the civilizations which built them. The main thoroughfare from the shore of the Yellow Sea to the capital of Korea, used by millions for millenniums, has never been more than the bridle path it is todayfit emblem of a people without a hope in the world, an apathetic, hermit nation.

Every road has a story and the burden of every story is a need. The greater the need, the better the road and the longer and more important the story. Go back